SAN FRANCISCO - MARCH 2: Recycled plastic bottles are seen at the San Francisco Recycling Center ... [+] March 2, 2005 in San Francisco, California. Bottled water is the single largest growth area among all beverages, more than doubling over the last decade. Only about 12 percent of plastic bottles, mostly water, were recycled in 2003, according to industry consultant R.W. Beck, Inc. Since most bottled water is consumed away from home where recycling isn't an option, an estimated 40 million bottles a day go into the trash or become litter. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
A new partnership aims to unlock $300 million of investment in recycling plants around the world and address the growing plastic waste crisis.
The global packaging company Amcor has joined forces with the Minderoo Foundation for the Sea the Future project, which plans to build a worldwide network of sorting and recycling plants.
The first three plants will be built in Indonesia, the Netherlands and Brazil, and once operational, they will produce 150,000 tonnes of recycled plastic a year.
Amcor has agreed to sign off-take agreements, which will secure the commercial future of the recycling centres currently being designed.
The construction of the three plants is expected to start within the next two years.
Tony Worby, the CEO of the Minderoo Foundation’s Planet Initiative, said the new partnership aims to keep plastics ultimately out of incinerators and landfill
“Our catch line is that we want to keep plastic out of the environment and in the economy,” he added.
“The demand for plastic products is going to only continue,” he added. “I don't think there's a single silver bullet in terms of solving the plastics problem. This is just one component of a possible solution.”
He said most major brands and companies have ESG targets and sustainability goals, and investors are increasingly holding them to account about how they impact the environment.
“Nobody argues anymore that there is not a problem with plastics in the environment,” added Mr Worby.
“We can all see it. There's public outrage about it. Brands are now sitting up and paying attention. Everything is starting to move in the right direction in terms of ESG responsibilities, because companies want to do the right thing and use more recycled material.”
Amcor and the Minderoo Foundation are now welcoming additional members to the partnership, offering companies from both the consumer goods and petrochemical industries the chance to join as founding members over the coming months.
The scheme will unite leading global brands with suppliers to incentivize and catalyze investment in plastics recycling and the manufacturing of products from recycled plastics that are currently made from virgin resin.
Amcor’s vice president of sustainability, David Clark said many recycled materials cost more than their virgin equivalent, because of the added collection, sorting and processing costs.
He added that historically a lot packaging was not designed to be recycled, which is another reason why the economics of recycling have not worked, but he said the situation is now changing with many manufacturers like Amcor pledging to make packaging that can be recycled, reused or composted.
“It's a matter of getting the infrastructure in place, and then helping consumers understand how they can participate,” he added.
“What we're seeing in recycling is the realisation that there are economies of scale, and while as much as collection should take place at a local level, materials have to be moved to a place where they can be processed efficiently,” he added.
“If you look again at other industries that are more advanced that recycling than plastics, those industries have already integrated recycled material into their normal operations. Every steel plant runs recycled steel, but most plastics manufacturers who are making resin today, don't use recycled plastic in that process.
“One of the transformations that we'll see over the next 10 years is a consolidation in plastic recycling and increase in scale,” said Clark.